Tag: Unemployment Rate

The news Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is that the U.S. job market is treading water. The number of new jobs created in December (155,000), and percent unemployment (7.8), were the same as the revised numbers for November.

The New York Times columnist takes on the conspiracy theorists—former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch (pictured) among them—who cried foul after the jobs report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the unemployment rate dropped below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years.

We’re still crawling out of the deep crater we fell into in 2008 and 2009. The percent of the working-age population now working or actively looking for work is higher than it was, but still near a 30-year low. But at least we’re crawling out.

The biggest election news this week won’t be who wins the presidential debate Wednesday night. It will be how many new jobs were created in September, announced Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Mitt Romney has a new economic goal, one that ostensibly backtracks from the benchmark he set for himself earlier this month. The presumed GOP presidential nominee told Time magazine’s Mark Halperin on Wednesday that he would get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent in his first term.

Talk of an economic rejuvenation in recent weeks got a sobering smack in the face Friday as California’s jobless figures were released. The Golden State’s unemployment rolls reached 11.9 percent in July, a post-World War II high.

While the unemployment rate climbed to 8.9% in April, the number of job losses was down to 539,000, a sign that the recession may be slowing and recovery is on its way. Meanwhile, President Obama proposes an ambitious reform on education for the unemployed while Paul Krugman reminds us of the dangers of keeping banks unchecked.